A very interesting Kickstarter has launched recently, and before we get started — yes, it’s another smart watch. This category is starting to get a bit crowded, we know, but each new watch always has enough uniqueness to offer that we feel the need to highlight almost all of them. The latest is HOT Watch, a device that will let you make calls with your hand. Yes, I said hand.

This e-paper smart watch includes patent-pending technology that allows you to speak to your friends and family by putting your hand up against your ear. The sends audio through a a directional speaker that is designed to let the audio bounce off the palm of your hand up to your ear. The watch’s built-in microphone will take on the task of sending your voice to the caller on the other end.

The above illustration depicts sound being generated by a directional speaker that resides at the bottom of the wrist. It is then projected to the palm, which reflects and amplifies it to the user’s ear for a private, crystal-clear phone call. The microphone is located on the same module, opposite of the speaker, for echo-free, clear sound. Essentially your hand/palm acts like a phone receiver.

We’re not sure well it works, but our interests are immediately piqued. Another big element of the HOT Watch is its sizable suite of gesture-based controls — dubbed HOT Gestures — thanks to the accelerometer inside. Twisting your wrist to dismiss calls, tapping your hand against your leg to place a call to your favorite person, waving to end a call, moving your hand to your ear while a call is incoming to answer, and an automatic text message to certain people if you fall, and activating the backlight by looking at the watch are just a few of the gesture-based controls available to you.

HOT Gestures are also implemented at the touch-screen level to give you quick and easy access to several areas of the watch. Make an “A” on the screen to open up the apps section. Draw a “C” for clock and alarm settings. An “S” helps you launch SMS, Facebook, Twitter and other messaging apps. “D” will take you to the dialer. Another cool feature is the watch’s ability to detect when you’ve left your phone behind. It will vibrate and beep to let you know you need to go back for your phone before you get too far (something a clumsy person like myself can definitely appreciate).

This watch’s big “thing” is about making it easy to use, and if it’s as intuitive and easy as the Kickstarter video makes it look we can safely say that it has a big chance of succeeding in that are. The HOT Watch will come with an emulator-supported SDK for developers to make third-party apps with. Here are just a few of the other features you can expect HOT Watch to have:

Water-resistant design

Bluetooth 4.0 Dual mode

Energy Efficient Cortex M3 processor

Secondary DSP processor for Bluetooth, Call control and Audio Enhancements

Vibration motor with tactile touch function

Built-in LED Flashlight (ONLY in Curve)

There will also be a utility app for Android (and iOS) that will give you access to the watch’s full suite of features. It works in basic capacity with devices based on other operating systems, but you won’t get the whole kit and kaboodle without an Android or iOS device.

So will this thing be a reality? Well, yes — it has already reached its funding goal on Kickstarter. The company asked for just $150,000 to be able to design final prototypes of the four models (Edge, Classic, Basic, and Curve), as well as to deliver the final product to anyone who cares to buy one. It’s sitting at just over double that goal, with $301,000 pledged as of the time of this writing. Considering the project’s funding period doesn’t end until the end of August, we’d say there will be a whole lot of money behind this thing by the end of it all.

Check the video out above, and see if it’s enough to get you to pledge at least $119 to own one. They’re scheduled to ship this December, so the wait won’t be long to see this thing of beauty sitting neatly on your wrist.

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I know but how apt was it, what were the chances she’d drop her phone just after he mentioned it?!

Robabobbob

I charge my phone every night and am happy to do the same with a smart watch if it means I can have a high quality colour touch screen rather than the dog ugly epaper displays. I like the concept but to buy it I want a nice display, wireless charging and a better UI/UX.

basschica

Have you used a color display watch in the sun or attempted to use them for sports? Ugh. I had a MotoActv and have no interest in a color screen watch. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the display on my Nike+GPS so much more than the Moto that burned through a battery (in less than a day with a long run). It’s not about charging every night, though if you want to track sleep it stinks because you’d be charging instead of tracking, but for me…Epaper is so much better when it comes to a watch. They’ve certainly been way better on battery, don’t get hot, and you can actually see them in broad daylight. I realize everyone has needs and opinions, but just from my own experience, color displays aren’t for me. It was a nice novelty rooting my MotoActv for some Angry Birds, but being such a small display, color didn’t add much to the wow factor for me even on the stock Moto interface. I would rather have had a battery life I could depend on.

Bradha562

I too have the MotoActv and yes the battery life sucks. If it had a better battery life and was waterproof, it would be the ideal workout watch. I’ve never had a problem with the display. Besides the built-in speaker and mic the MotoActv would be able to do everything this Hot watch can do (not out of the box but I’m sure an XDA developer could put together a ROM). The MotoActv has similar wrist gestures built into it, flicking the wrist wakes the display and tapping the screen can speak your workout stats to you. I use the GPS for playing golf which is an added bonus. I didn’t see any mention of ANT+ in the Hot watch.

basschica

Haha…wait til you have the big problem with the display…i.e. putting your MotoActv on and dropping it from waist level to the floor. It will shatter the screen… :) Did it. Done with it.

Hot Watch doesn’t have ANT+ but it does have Bluetooth 4.0 which is what I suspect most/all sensors will become in the coming years. The TomTom MultiSports are also Bluetooth 4.0 as are most cell phone compatible sensors since you otherwise need a dongle of some sort for ANT+ on those. If you have existing ANT+ it’s a concern, but if you don’t have anything yet, just get Bluetooth 4.0 compatible HRMs, cadence sensors, etc.

Here’s my old MotoActv.

Bradha562

I agree, that interface is fugly!

basschica

I want this + Basis B1 sensors (galvanic, skin temp, and HRM) + GPS tracking built in for runs (and more sports tracking ability with the 3d accelerometer like TomTom multisport). Then…I will have my dream watch!

Roaduardo

I can see Samsung stepping in to buy this.

basschica

I could too, but it wouldn’t add anything to the experience, rather just show they’ve got money. I’d rather see TomTom, Basis and/or Mio partner with them. =|

Roaduardo

I’d like Mio better out of that lot.

basschica

Well, I’d like the HRM from Mio (since it’s constant whereas Basis was only able so far to pull off intermittent because of battery issues), but I’d want the other sensors that are on the Basis for galvanic and skin temp and the GPS/strap type design from TomTom/Nike+ so depending how a partnership/patents and what have you get worked out I guess it would depend on who can best partner to make the features I want combine with the existing Hot Watch functionality. I just hope the Hot Watch is accurate on the pedometer. The B1 is horribly inaccurate and I’ve heard a lot of other wrist trackers are too. That’s why I like my Fitbit One (and Ultra that I had before that). I have heard good things about the Fitbit Flex, but don’t personally own one myself to say for sure how accurate it is vs the regular fitbits.

Roaduardo

I speculate about Samsung because they seem to want to really dive deep into the mobile fitness market with their “S-Health” stuff.

basschica

Yeah, it looks like they are creating not-as-cool versions of stuff that Fitbit already has so far (wider bracelet style tracker/scale) and run of the mill HRM. I could see them attempting to buy up Fitbit too. That being said, I love Fitbit and wouldn’t want their awesome company to get swallowed up. Their support team is really helpful and personable and I wouldn’t want it to become standard horrible support we’ve come to expect from most large companies. Plus, fitness and making people’s lives better/healthier is their passion and not just making money/electronics. I like a company for fitness products that is passionate about that very thing. There are so many people that could tell stories about Fitbit, Nike+, Withings, Runkeeper, Basis, MyFitnessPal, SparkPeople, etc. that would say they’ve had their lives changed by the technologies those companies provide and the people that work at those places work for the reward they get by doing that for people. They’re passionate about it and it drives them to do more and innovate to help people further. That’s a really cool thing.